30 Ways to Ask
by JoanyChan
Summary: Because when the girl you fall for is Kushina Uzumaki, you better have Plans A-Z prepared...and since an entire alphabet's worth of plans won't be enough, you better double those letters while you're at it. AU. MinaKushi & side pairings. M for language.
1. Plan A: Can I treat you to coffee?

** Can I treat you to coffee?**

Namikaze Minato spilled coffee over the waitress's long, red hair. Whether he was aware of it or not, it would be the greatest mistake he had ever made.

At the moment, however, they did not have a polite exchange.

He hardly had the chance to apologize before the woman stood up from the ground and yanked him by the collar of his hoodie.

"OI...YOU BASTARD. If you have something against my hair then we can take it outside..." She aggressively threatened.

Looking at the upturned, un-lidded coffee cup in his hand, he realized that it was reasonable that she for her to assume that he spilled it over her head on purpose. After all, she had been on the ground, trying to search for the pen she dropped. She couldn't have seen that it was actually his friend that knocked the drink into the air. He was the one who tried to catch it—and succeeded...only then he realized that he had caught it upside down over her kneeling body.

So now he was getting the death glare from a pair of teal eyes framed by coffee-soaked hair.

As with everything, he tried to handle the situation with an affable smile, putting up his hands in peace, "I can explain—

"You poured the goddamned stuff over my head, what is there to explain?!"

He thought that he would have been intentionally pummeled by someone for the first time—and a girl too—had a waiter not passed by and pulled her off him.

"Uzumaki-kun!" The man exclaimed, exasperated.

"WHAT?! The asshole drenched me with his fucking coffee!"

"I'm really sorry for this, sir." The waiter bowed in apology and then glared expectantly back at his female coworker, "We'll offer you a free coffee on the house next time for the inconvenience."

Instead of offering an apology, she snorted rather ungraciously, "Great. Tell me when you're coming then, I'll bring a fucking helmet and some coffee to pour over that blonde head of yours."

"It was an accident—

He started to try to explain what really happened again when young woman stormed off. While surrounded by the clamor of a busy café, they sat in silence, left in awe at some storm that passed.

"That was one crazy chick." His friend with black hair tied in a spiky ponytail finally said. He slung his arm casually over the back of the chair.

"This wouldn't have been a problem if you hadn't insisted on turning your coffee into a projectile, Nara." Another young man pointed out disapprovingly. His black side bangs slightly covered his face as he continued to study from his textbook laid on the table. Completing his appearance of a dedicated college student was the dark sweater over a white dress shirt.

"Shut it, Uchiha." The casual student in sweat pants and a T-shirt unchanged from basketball practice retorted to the side. Then he teased, "Man, did you see the look on her face? That's gotta be the first time anyone's actually been angry at Namikaze!" He elbowed his blonde friend, "Right?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah." He absentmindedly answered.

"She even swore at him!" Nara Shikaku laughed.

"It certainly is proof that she's eccentric." Uchiha Fugaku agreed.

"Wait, what's wrong with that?" Minato asked with cluelessly blue eyes, "I've heard swears before."

"Yeah. People have sworn in front of you before. But never directly _at _you."

"Why?" Minato asked blankly.

"Because you never do anything wrong and your language is completely unsoiled." Fugaku answered without even a glance from his book, "Swearing in front of you feels like the equivalent of kicking a puppy and swearing at you would be like killing one."

Embarrassed, Minato said, "Come on guys, it's not really like that..."

"So basically that psycho bitch just killed like, five baby dogs."

Unintentionally proving his friends' point, Minato winced at the cuss in Shikaku's last comment. "I'm sure she had her reasons." He sheepishly smiled, "It was partially my fault too for catching the cup the wrong way."

"See? This is why nobody wants to swear in front of you. Do you hear yourself? You're _defending _the person who tried to pummel you." Shikaku exasperatedly reacted, "You aren't just _like _a Mr. Nice Guy. You _are _Mr. Nice Guy."

"I still think I should apologize..."

"But you tried, didn't you?" Fugaku rationally pointed out, "She just chose not to listen. So she's the one with the loss, right?"

"I guess." Minato finally replied with an uneasy tone.

But for some reason, he couldn't help but feel in a daze as his eyes continually fell back onto the curtain of red hair. Despite the fact that it was damp with coffee, the waitress's hair struck him as incredibly fiery as she indignantly argued with the coworker at the back of the counter.

He couldn't help it—he just really wanted a chance to apologize to her.

* * *

Café de Feuille was the kind of café in which the waitresses were expected to wear uniform, knee length black dresses with white aprons tied around their narrow waists (Shikaku was convinced that body measurements was part of the hiring process there). Their menu consisted of gourmet coffee and unpronounceable pastries. The majority of its frequent customers—like Fugaku—were sophisticated college students, private secondary school students, and scholarly adults.

So the next day, Minato opted out of his typical outfit consisting of a pullover hoodie and jeans, choosing instead to change into a gray sweater after basketball practice.

If things went the way he had planned, the nine minutes after he entered the door would go as follows:

T + 1:00 minute: Find a seat

T + 5:00 minutes: Try to read the menu

T + 6:00 minutes: Be greeted by the red-haired waitress. Ask for her suggestion on an order.

T + 7:00 minutes: Order two of what she suggests so that he can treat her to one after she gets off shift.

T + 8:00 minutes: Explain that it was his form of an apology for yesterday

T + 9:00 minutes: Explain what _actually _happened yesterday

T + 10:00 minutes: She accepts and realizes that everything was a misunderstanding.

Not surprisingly, life hardly went according to plan. The café was incredibly busy and he was forced to sit near the back. After 30 minutes of waiting, he still wasn't asked for his order. But at that point, he considered it a good thing, since the only working employee had it rough. It would've been unfair of him to add on to the young woman's troubles.

"Oi. Guys, can't you at least _pretend _to do your goddamned jobs?" The red haired woman looked over her shoulder at the two waitresses who were sitting at a table with their high school peers.

The waitress with a perm waved her older coworker off, "But Uzumaki-kun, all this college exam prep is just so _stressful_, can't you give us some sympathy? You should understand—oh, wait. I'm sorry." A hand with neatly manicured nails flew to her mouth in forgetfulness, "I forgot that you never took them..."

Kushina—or so the waitress's name tag read—flashed a lightning-teal glare at the pair of waitresses. Right when she opened her mouth to speak (or perhaps yell), she remembered that she was in the middle of a balancing act, juggling three trays at once.

"Hey! Is my café au lait ready?" A customer called out in the background.

"This isn't what I ordered!"

Turning from the struggling, red-haired waitress, a girl in a high school uniform sitting at the table with her working friends asked, "Aren't you two going to get in trouble for this?"

"It's fine. It's fine." One of them replied, worriless.

"But aren't you worried that she might get all the tips or something?"

The two girls laughed.

"No way! Uzumaki-kun? She's a total klutz!"

"I heard the manager is planning to fire her soon anyway."

One of the waitress's mascara-long eye lashes fluttered open in interest, "Really, why?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? I mean, she never follows the dress code and always wears a waiter's clothes instead."

"But could you imagine her in a skirt? I think she's saving everyone's eyes by wearing pants instead. It would just be a whole bundle of awkward. Everything about her is so boyish and unclassy."

"Hmm...I guess you're right..." Their friend mused, "And she's pretty tall too. If she didn't have such long hair, she could pass for a guy."

Although it was against his principles to break the proper etiquette he was taught at a young age, Minato eavesdropped on the girls' conversation, finding himself unable to focus on the book before him.

"Guys, what if she's hermaphroditic?"

"_What_?!"

"No really, just think about it." The waitress excitedly hypothesized, "She _never _wears a skirt—don't you think she might be hiding something?!"

"Shh! She might hear you!"

"Oh whatever. It's not like she'll even know what a hermaphrodite is—

"No, I do not have a dick."

Minato cringed at her language; yet however vulgar and crude the red haired waitress was, he couldn't help but smile slightly when she slammed the trays onto the table. The high school girls jumped, startled by the sudden clatter of empty cups and plates.

One of them asked with an innocent expression, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that however awesome I am, I can't spawn little clones of myself through asexual reproduction." Kushina glared ruthlessly, "Oh, don't fuck with me. I graduated from high school. I'm not that dumb."

Her loud voice carried, causing some in the room to turn from their conversations and stare.

"My god, Uzumaki-kun. Why do you have to say the _weirdest _things?" The other waitress flipped her hair over a shoulder and stood up to leave. Her knee hit a table leg, causing a tall pile of plates to tip over and onto the ground.

The discordant crash silenced the entire room, and all eyes fell on the redheaded, young woman. His eyes, however, fell on the blood dripping from her left hand, in which two shards of glass punctured her skin.

"Isn't that the _that _waitress?—

"Why is her hair dyed so _red..._"

He could hear their mutters and judgments. If this was the case, then he was sure that she could as well. But it was hard to see what was going through her mind with her scarlet hair carpeting over her face as she stared at the shattered plates.

For a moment, he wished that he had the nerve to tell them all to mind their own business. Yet his prevailing conscience told him that doing so would be intruding too much into her personal affairs. Technically, they were perfect strangers—he probably didn't have a right to involve himself...

"Uzumaki Kushina!"

A well-groomed man in a dark suit approached the tall waitress, furious.

"Would you care to explain what happened here?!"

"It's not my fault—

He cut her off, heaving a sigh without hearing the rest of her explanation as he pinched the bridge of his nose in impatience, "I can't even the count the number times you've done this. Never mind the number of plates you've broken, are you aware of how many complaints I get about you?"

"About what?!"

The other two waitresses snuck off and began taking orders. Gradually, conversation began to fill space again. Meanwhile, the employer continued to berate the woman. Minato tried to keep his eyes on his book.

"Your hair is an immense distraction...

"It's natural! How many times do I have to tell you people—

"...Your language is obscene. You never dress appropriately for your gender. I originally hired you because you seemed serious about taking this job. But at this point, you are practically detrimental for business."

She bit her lip in attempted to hold back a retort as her teal eyes flashed in challenge.

"This is your last warning. The next time something like this happens, consider yourself fired."

"Right." She replied in a low voice. Noticing his expectant, condescending expression, she added, "Thank you, sir."

He looked up just as she walked briskly by. Their eyes met and he almost asked her if she needed help. But the steely glare pushed him away, leaving him in hesitation, wondering whether he should go after her. Although he really had nothing to do with her, he just couldn't shake off the feeling of guilt.

His blue eyes stared at long strand of red hair on the ground between his seat and the back door from which she left. Perhaps he should've at least helped her with her wound.

Maybe he would ask her about it next time.

* * *

"Are you sure, Minato?" Fugaku asked over the phone.

The blonde college walked down a relatively quiet street, pressing the cell phone to his ear in order to hear his friend's voice over the busy background noise from his end.

"Yeah. It's okay, I don't want to interrupt your time with Mikoto-chan." Minato smiled.

"Actually, that's already been done. Nara and Hyuuga are here. You might as well join us for the festival too—practically everyone else in the city is here at the shrine. We can wait for you at the entrance."

Amid the buzzing and snippets of other conversation on the other end of the phone line, Minato thought he heard Shikaku yell in slightly slurred speech, "Hey Namikaze, join me in my hobby of third-wheeling!"

But by then, Minato had already noticed the lights filling the café shop, as opposed to the other businesses that were closed early in celebration of the annual winter festival.

"Sorry, guys. I'm kind of tired from the exam I took today. I'm going to skip on this one." He apologized.

He felt bad after hanging up, because if he really were tired, he'd be at home. Instead, he walked across the street towards the only lighted window with a book in his hand.

The shopkeeper's bell rung in the empty café. He seated himself at a round table near the front window and wondered if anyone was actually working. Suddenly, he found himself staring at a cup of steaming coffee on the tabletop.

"Sorry. Expresso's the only thing I really know how to make."

He almost didn't recognize the waitress. She wore a standard black skirt and tied her brown hair into a neat ponytail. She could've passed for any other working woman in the city. Except the way the light hit her hair from his angle allowed him to notice the bright scarlet sheen that could not be hidden by hair dye.

It took him aback. He almost forgot to reply. The truth was, he wasn't planning on ordering any type of caffeine (since obviously it was not good to consume at night). Actually, this time, this moment, with the waitress in front of him so unlike how he typically pictured her, he was plan-less.

He started, "Thanks—

But the shopkeeper's bell cut him off. Three gangly high school students entered and sat at the booth next to his table.

"Can I take your order?"

Her voice seemed as stiff as the way she approached them, standing awkwardly in heels, uncomfortable in a skirt.

Something about this café really made him forget his manners. Minato looked over the page of his book, feeling his lips curve in a slight frown. It really wasn't really his business, but the way the guys looked at her and then grinned at each other just didn't sit right with him.

"_Shit_." One whistled, "Nice get up."

She ignored their snickers and repeated in a steely voice, "Your orders?"

"Man, how much did they have to pay you to get you into that?"

"You know, I thought that wearing a guy's shirt was hiding your tits. But you legit don't have any."

Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the notepad with tense arms.

Minato kept telling himself that he wasn't supposed to be observing. In reality, she was probably the last person in the world who would ever need anyone's concern. But then there was that red-tainted-brown hair of hers...

It wasn't hard to tell that the three were incredibly intoxicated. He could practically smell the alcohol the moment he heard their slurred, heavy speech.

"I'll come back when you guys are ready to order, then." She gritted, clearly trying to remain on her best behavior as she turned to walk away.

One of them reached out to grab her arm, "Hey, rumor has it that you're a lesbo—

Her teal eyes flashed as she whipped around with a ready fist. But before she could retaliate, she was stopped in surprise by the figure who suddenly came in between her and the drunk men.

The next thing Minato knew, he was standing in front of the waitress with an empty cup in his hand. His blue eyes blinked in surprise at his own actions as he stared at the three students who were drenched in coffee.

"HOLY _SHIT!_" The high school student reached for his face, scalded by the hot drink, "What's your _problem_?!"

"If you're not planning on actually ordering anything, then please leave." Minato smiled, "Otherwise, I'm we can sort this out somewhere else."

The three glowered at the blonde man, with their hair dripping in scorching coffee.

"Fuck you, man."

One finally grumbled and left with his companions. The door slammed shut after the ring of a bell.

The stiff smile on Minato's face fell with a sigh of relief.

"You're not getting another free coffee for that." The waitress beside him said rather indifferently.

"That's alright." He turned to her and grinned sheepishly, "I won't need another one anymore, since they left." He noticed her confused expression and then explained, "I've uh...actually never actually been in a fight before...so..."

"What the hell? And you thought you could take those guys on? Are you stupid?" She stared at him, incredulous while she spoke in an edgy voice, "It was none of your business anyway. I didn't need any help."

"Oh, I didn't do it because I thought you needed help. I did that because I wanted to."

She blinked, caught off guard by his easy smile.

"You seem pretty capable of holding your own, but I just thought it'd be nice to support you—no, that's not what I mean...It's just that, I've watched you—no, not like that, but I..." He trailed off, as if at lost for an explanation.

She didn't quite understand what he was getting at, but she sighed and sat on a chair, leaving the dark puddle as it was. "Whatever. I won't have to deal with the assholes here anymore, since those three are going to complain about me and get me fired."

"Oh, here." He handed over a few bills. After seeing the confused look on her face, he added, "It's for coffee."

"Okay. Number one, I just told you that I'm not going to work here anymore. And number two, that coffee I gave you was free. Don't tell me you already forgot about the time you poured the damned coffee over my head, 'cuz that'll just piss me off."

"I know. I'm paying for another one."

"It's fucking 10 at night. Shouldn't normal people be asking for alcohol instead?"

But once again, she found herself slightly taken aback when he replied affably:

"It's not for me. It's for you."

"Wait—what?"

"Would you like a cup of coffee?"

It was a gesture that was entirely new to her, despite having worked in the café for nearly a year. "Let me get this right," She slowly started, "_You're _asking _me_, if _I _want coffee. _Me_. The waitress."

"Well, you just told me you're an ex-waitress now, right? And yes. My treat."

So she accepted and went to the machine behind to counter to make herself one of those cold drinks she remembered was really popular with all the customers her age. He watched her return with a tall cup and take a sip from the straw.

She immediately spewed the drink back out.

"What the—oh god, this is _gross_. People actually drink this crap? It's so bitter!"

He couldn't help but laugh as she wiped her tongue with a napkin to rid the aftertaste. Surprisingly enough, he found her somewhat naive, despite her above-average height and atypical demeanor.

"You've never had coffee before?"

"What? Hell no." She replied with a slight lisp as she continued to wipe down her tongue, "What's so funny?"

He couldn't really find the exact words to explain that what brought a smile to his face was her surprised teal eyes behind the white napkin stuck to her tongue. "Nothing. It's just that, you work at a café—

"Yeah. But I've never actually tried the stuff I serve. Why do you actually _drink _this?!"

"I'm actually not a fan of coffee either," Minato admitted.

"Then what the hell are you doing here? Isn't everybody else at the festival right now?"

"Well, not everyone."

"What?" She blinked in confusion and looked around at the empty room.

"Well, you're here, aren't you?"

That smile of his baffled her even more. It was a kind of friendliness that seemed new to her, causing her to think that maybe it was okay to lower her guard a bit.

"I'm Kushina. Uzumaki Kushina." She blurted, remembering to extend her hand.

"Namikaze Minato. Nice to meet you." He accepted her hand with another amiable smile.

Since handshakes were only meant to be temporary, they fell back to another moment of awkward silence. Until finally, Minato couldn't help but ask:

"Are you planning to turn your hair red again?"

She looked at him quizzically for the atypical question. But she shrugged nonchalantly, "Nah."

"Why not?"

"I still have to get another job anyway. It'll probably be easier if I keep it brown like this. Although," She pulled a strand of hair into her eyesight in annoyance, "this dye was cheap as fuck and does a shitty job of doing what I bought it for. But my hair is fucking obnoxious."

"I think you should keep your natural hair color."

"Huh?"

Her teal eyes flew to his thoughtful expression, but before she could ask him why, he pointed out the window.

"Look, fireworks."

She turned to the window and noticed tiny streams of white light soar over the buildings before bursting into color.

"The view is really nice from here."

Blue pops and green fizzles lit the night sky before she replied, "The blue ones were pretty awesome."

"Really? Because I really like the ones that are red."

She watched scarlet showers of light reflect then dissipate in his clear blue eyes, and thought that maybe coffee didn't taste so bad after all.

* * *

**A/N: I've always been a MinaKushi fan, especially after having Uzumaki family feels. So this is the product of my love for the family—a MinaKushi story set in modern day. **

**As I mentioned, there are side pairings in here as well and some of the Naruto parents will be featured.**

**Another side note: Feuille= leaf in french (I'm a spanish student actually, so my french-student sister could be screwing with me and if that's the case, curse her). I figured that it made a nice tie in to the Village of the Leaf or something. If anything, I'll just privately enjoy the connection.**

**Unlike most of my stories so far, this one is more slice-of-life. Oh, and my characters are a lot more vulgar here...(well, at least Kushina) than in my HitsuHina fics. But of course, the relationships here take on a different dynamic that I'm excited to explore.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and please review!**


	2. Plan B: Do you remember my name?

**Do you remember my name?**

Never had he heard such a prolific symphony of alarm clocks.

It was certainly not what Minato was used to, but he liked to look at things in a positive light; in this new apartment that he had recently moved into, he would never have to worry about sleeping in (even if he was a natural morning person to begin with). Instead, he could just take advantage of the clashing alarms that carried through thin walls.

So if by the rarest chance he was still in bed at 8:30 in the morning, he would not have any trouble waking up thanks to his neighbor's abundant collection of clocks.

The clamor continued while he showered after his daily morning workout, throughout the time it took him to pull on his clothes, and then during his breakfast as well. After an hour and a half of enduring the buzzing, beeping and ringing, he became plain worried for the wellbeing of his neighbor, who seemed frighteningly immune to the cacophony.

He walked out of his apartment and knocked on the door to the left.

A blue-eyed young man with his blond hair tied in a ponytail answered, "Oh hey, Namikaze. What's up?"

"Good morning Yamanaka-kun. Um…" Minato blinked in confusion, unsure of whether he should inquire about the alarm clocks, considering that his fellow college basketball teammate seemed completely unfazed by the noise blasting from behind him. "…Is everything okay?"

"Okay?" Inoichi Yamanaka looked at him quizzically before realizing what his new neighbor was referring to, "Oh right. You don't know about Shikaku's hibernation habits."

"Hibernation?"

"Well, 'hibernation' is kind of misleading, since this is a daily thing." The matter-of-fact way in which he replied left Minato confused as to whether he should laugh at the blatant joke or worry about the serious situation, "Anyways, want to come in?"

"Sure. Excuse me—

"Oh, don't bother taking off your shoes. Actually, it's probably safer if you don't."

Minato understood what his basketball teammate meant once he followed him into the apartment room filled with weeklong, unwashed (from what he could smell) basketball jerseys and other unkempt laundry items strewn across the floor. Unused to the relentless ring of the alarm clocks beating against his eardrum, he covered his ears. Lying on the couch with a gaming console still in his hand was Shikaku, who was miraculously sleeping through the army of clocks that surrounded him.

"Who is it?" A voice called out through the din from behind a wall of empty beer cans.

"It's just Namikaze. He got woken up by Shikaku's goddamned clocks."

"Oh, it wasn't a bother, really. I was already up—

"Oh Namikaze!" Akamichi Chouza, the hefty power forward of the basketball team, peeked his head up from behind the beer can fortress on one end of the room. "Good timing. He can be the judge of our laundry war."

"Huh? Are you guys in a fi—

"Excellent. That way you can stop accusing me of cheating all the time. Could you do that for us, Namikaze?"

Somewhat lost in the pace of their conversation, Minato found himself saying, "Um. Sure. But wait, what am I supposed to do—

"Awesome."

With that, Inoichi dove behind another wall of beer cans on the opposite end of the room and grabbed what appeared to be a dirty sock tied into a ball by a rubber band—the nearest one out of all the rolled up, unwashed articles of clothing scattered recklessly throughout the place. He placed the sock on a make-shift see-saw-like contraption consisting of a soup ladle and other kitchen ware. Without warning, the sock ball was sent flying over the couch Shikaku was still sleeping on and into Chouza's wall on the other side.

"Damn it, Shikaku." Chouza growled at the fallen section of his fort and catapulted a pair of boxers back, "You're either really lucky or clearly cheating."

Minato could only stare, bewildered and overwhelmed by the behavior of his friends. Clearly he was missing something about this miniature battle, in which Inoichi and Chouza continued to launch dirty laundry back and forth at each other with such intensity that the fact that Shikaku was obliviously caught in between the crossfire could've almost been forgotten (had it not been for the persistent ringing of his clocks).

"Do you guys do this every day too?" Minato yelled over the ringing, his hands still covered over his ears.

"No. Monthly. We do it to determine who does the laundry." Chouza said as he quickly ducked one of Inoichi's undershirts, "Whoever has his wall completely knocked over or gets hit first loses and has to do the cleaning."

Minato wondered whether his friends had ever considered it more convenient to do the laundry more often. But he kept that thought in the back of his mind and instead asked, "Why do you guys have so many beer cans?"

"From drinking it all."

"All of it?"

"We save those up over the course of a month for this too. Shikaku consumes 59% of it among the three of us though." Inoichi replied.

Although Minato had no experience with drinking, he was pretty sure that the copious amount of empty beer cans with which Chouza and Inoichi were using as war fortresses was not healthy.

"Yeah. Last night he drank a whole pack." Chouza added.

"Oh. What were you guys celebrating?" Minato innocently asked.

"Nothing." Chouza answered, shortly after cussing at yet another fallen can.

Inoichi casually said, "We just had a raging party and paid 10 hookers to come over—

"Okay, okay. You can stop there." Embarrassed at the idea, Minato's face turned red.

"He's kidding, Namikaze. Shikaku was too lazy to try meeting some girls with us last night so he spent the entire night playing video games and drank by himself. Don't listen to Inoichi. He's just a pathological liar who loves screwing with people's minds." Chouza reassured his neighbor.

"I won't argue against that. It's so easy with Namikaze though. He's so damn gullible." Inoichi watched his jersey miss Chouza's wall by a centimeter, "But honestly, Namikaze, the three of us combined don't even have the money to afford that kind of entertainment. And if we did, we would've invited you—

"No thank you!" Minato clamped his ears shut even tighter as Inoichi laughed. He changed the subject, "Anyways, shouldn't we wake Nara-kun up?"

"It's okay. Don't bother."

"But doesn't he have class?"

"Yeah. Principles of Ecology 401. It's at…well, was at, eight." Chouza replied, still unfazed.

"If we wake him now he can still make it!" Minato insisted.

"Nah, no thanks. The three of us are in a bet to see how long Shikaku can last in his morning classes before falling out for tardiness." Inoichi answered, "I give him one month but Chouza's a bit more generous; he has his bet on two months."

"Who's the third person?"

"Shikaku."

Seeing Minato's confused expression, Chouza explained, "Well, technically he doesn't know he's in the bet. We placed the bet for him, so Shikaku's giving himself four months."

"Which basically means he's going to be coughing up 2000 yen to one of us." Inoichi continued the thought, "We didn't want him to feel excluded."

"Plus, we figured that he might as well start paying up, because it's not long before the neighbors' complaints will finally convince the landlady to boot us out. Then this lazy ass over here has to pay full rent for the three of us."

"But it's been practically two hours. Are you sure we shouldn't maybe take him to a doctor?..."

His question trailed off when he saw one of the sock-weapons land right into Shikaku's unflattering, open mouth.

"Uh...can he choke on that?" Chouza asked.

"Maybe. Let's find out." Inoichi replied, observing from behind his wall.

While Minato struggled to step through the crowd of clocks without breaking one, it didn't take long for the other two's curiosity to be answered. Shikaku's chest jerked violently before the young man sat up and spat the browned sock out of his mouth. He rolled off the couch and crashed on top of one of his clocks, silencing it with a crack.

"OUCH! FUCK, MY _ASS!_" The black haired man howled, leaping up to an ungraceful stand. Minato winced at the crude language.

"No thanks." Inoichi said.

"Oh, shut the hell up Inoichi." Shikaku grumbled, all while gripping his head from a hangover. He noticed the sock at his feet, "Wait…was that just a Chouza's _sock _in my mouth? God—you assholes! Didn't I tell you to stop having your laundry wars with me in the middle?!"

Trying to maintain a pleasant atmosphere, Minato smiled and greeted, "Good morning, Nara-kun."

Shikaku squinted through his headache, "What is Namikaze doing here at this ungodly hour?"

"Actually, it's nine." Inoichi pointed out, "And our new neighbor here is now very much aware of your morning habits, like all the others."

"Come to think of it, the only person that hasn't complained now is the one who lives by the staircase." Chouza mentioned.

"Doesn't count. That person's probably some shut-in, if anyone lives in there at all."

The black haired, 20-year-old struggled to take off his undershirt as he staggered in a circle to silence each of the 17 alarms. Then he picked up the one he broke.

"Great. Now I have to buy a new one."

Chouza looked at the television, which was switched to the local news channel, "Well good luck with that, because it looks like there's some sort of traffic jam in the direction of the book store.

* * *

As it turned out, the disturbance at the intersection nearby the shopping district was caused by a middle aged man and a certain red haired woman.

Uzumaki Kushina straddled her bicycle in the middle of the street, becoming the target of impatient honks as she yelled at the driver in front of her. Completely oblivious to the increasing number of onlookers, she slammed a fist on the hood of the car, hardly intimidated by the fact that her bicycle was much more fragile (especially now that it was broken) than the vehicle that the older man was in.

"Are you crazy, woman?! It was _my _light!"

"With all due respect, old man, that's _bullshit_."

"I'm 100% certain that I had the green light!"

"Unless color you saw was the same color as the blood coming out of my ass right now, the light was fucking red."

At this time, Minato and Shikaku were close enough to the crowd of spectators to hear what caused the scandalized looks on their faces. The aggressive tone and the fiery hair were all too recognizable for him. Minato turned red immediately when the implication of her words registered in his mind; Shikaku whistled, both impressed and amused.

"Well, now we know when to stay off the roads."

She ignored the bewildered expression of shock mixed in with disgust slapped on his face and continued, "Yeah, that's right. I'm practically pissing blood. But not as much blood as you once I'm through here."

The man backed off slightly, somewhat daunted by the eccentric threat. "Alright, let's keep this civil. I'm sure my insurance will cover for some of the damages, so I'll send you a reduced check—

"Hah?! You think I'm actually going to pay for a tiny scratch on your fucking Mercedes when I'm stuck on a shitty bike?"

"Well, yes you did ruin the paint job—

"Oh cry me a lake or ocean or whatever the fuck it's supposed to be. The only thing I'd ever be willing to pay for you is an eye doctor, since you're clearly blind as shit. Here's what's going to happen. _You_, old man, are going to pay _me_ for one, the job interview I just missed. Two, the broken gears on my bike. And three, the tampons I can no longer afford to buy since I just lost weeks' worth of paycheck…"

"We better keep walking before you die of second-hand embarrassment at the mention of menstruation." Shikaku smirked, nudging at Minato. "I might sleep in a lot, but hey, now you know that it could be worse. I mean, you could have her as a neighbor."

Although her vulgarity surprised him, his eyes stayed on her for a moment—just in case she would noticed him or call out his name—before breaking away to walk away from the scene. Still, the sight of her flashing teal eyes and her defiant hair let completely free lingered in his mind.

* * *

"Welcome—oh, it's just you."

"Yo, Takemori." Shikaku sarcastically replied, casually raising a hand in greeting to the young woman at the counter of the ramen restaurant, "Have I ever told you how enthusiastic you always sound? Honestly, every time I come here I just feel so _welcome_."

"My pleasure." She continued the cynical banter and called out behind her to the bustling kitchen, "One seafood ramen and—oh wait, where are your idiots?"

"Inoichi and Chouza decided that they would rather continue their laundry war than accompany me to the book store." Shikaku sat directly across from the girl with her dark brown hair tied in a modest ponytail.

She seemed to consider the first part of Shikaku's sentence before deciding that it was most likely too dumb for her comprehension. Instead she asked, all too knowingly, "Another alarm clock?"

"Yeah."

"I wonder what would happen if—oh, I don't know, let's just say—_someone_ just decides one day to take all the batteries from your alarms. Would you just sleep forever?"

"Shut up, Takemori. Don't think about it."

"Just wondering. I mean, I'm sure the thought has already crossed other peoples' minds…" She propped an elbow on the table somewhat deviously and looked at the blond-haired man she wasn't familiar with.

"Hah. If you've met Namikaze before, you'd know that he's the last person in the world to do something like that to me. Right, man?"

Unsure of whether he should join in on the casual jest, Minato simply fell back on what he always did: an amiable smile. "Um…no I woudn't. I think Nara-kun has his qualities."

"Did you pay a stranger to say nice things to you?"

"No, I'm broke, remember?" Shikaku answered, desensitized to her insults, "Believe it or not, this guy's actually a friend."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Namikaze Minato." He bowed slightly in common courtesy.

"Takemori Yoshino." She responded and turned to Shikaku teasingly for a moment before asking, "So, Namikaze-kun. How does a put-together guy like you cross paths with a good-for-nothing sloth?"

"Ah ha ha…" He laughed politely, "Um, I'm his teammate on the basketball team and I just moved into the apartment next to his."

"Poor you. What do you study?"

"I'm a pre-med student. How about you, Takemori-san?"

"Biochemistry at Hanamichi Women's College. I take some joint classes at your college though."

"Do you have a class with Nara-kun?"

"Yeah. But that's not how we met. This idiot here got himself completely wasted—

"Hey, hey. Aren't you getting the story backwards?"

"How would you know? You were drunk—

"Takemori-chan, are you bullying our customers again?" A good natured man in an apron interrupted, appearing from the back kitchen.

A five year old girl popped her head up from underneath the counter next to Yoshino and chirped brightly, "No bullying, Yoshi-nee chan! Bullies are bad guys!"

"That's right, Ayame!" The man doted upon his daughter, picking her up in a big bear hug as she giggled, "You tell those two bullies."

"What? Oi, Teuchi, why am I being lumped in with the likes of Takemori? I'm a victim here…"

As always, Minato felt a sort of distance between himself and the others, who seemed to argue and laugh with ease. Somehow, he felt as if there was a wall that blocked him from joining them—a wall he wasn't sure he wanted to break. So he followed along with the chat in the back of his mind as his attention wandered throughout the cozy ramen joint. Outside of the window was a typical Saturday midday on the city streets, couples and groups of friends sharing grins.

What caught his eye was the young woman standing in front of restaurant window, glaring at what he saw was a poster of a ramen bowl once he opened the door. She seemed completely unaware her surroundings, biting the corner of her lower lip in a scowl.

He opened his mouth but found himself stuck in a sentence he had not even thought of yet. Would a 'hello' be too generic? He could ask if she was okay from the road accident, but noticing the large rip in her dark wash jeans and her bleeding knee, he decided that he already knew the answer to that. Or perhaps he could ask her what television show that was on her graphic t-shirt—or maybe that was too random.

Whatever option that came to his mind was immediately shut down. However he saw it, saying anything would probably be bother for her. They had crossed paths a few times over the past two weeks and not once did she show any signs of recognition. He had thought that perhaps their eyes had met yesterday when they happened to be on the same crosswalk, but perhaps not. After all, one one-sided argument and one conversation might not be considered friendship. For all he knew, they could be strangers. He wondered if she knew his name.

He was about to go back into the restaurant when he heard a loud grumble.

She frowned at her stomach and hissed, "Shut up!"

He tried stifling his laughter, but a chuckle escaped him, catching her attention. She looked up and was greeted by the impact of his blue eyes.

"Oh! Umikaze!" She greeted him.

"Haha…it's actually Namikaze…" He was almost hesitant to correct her—he could tell from the light in her teal eyes that she had been confident and proud that she had remembered his name correctly. But it was odd—he felt subtly disappointed in the fact that she didn't get his name correctly. He wasn't quite sure what he was hoping for in the first place.

"Damn. I was close too."

He laughed politely, "Are you hungry, Uzumaki-chan?"

"No I'm fine." She insisted and returned to staring down the two dimensional noodles with heavy determination, "I can just imagine myself eating and it'll be okay."

Her stomach growled again.

She looked down and glared, "Traitor!"

"I can buy you a bowl, if you'd like." He offered.

She grinned sheepishly, doubled over from hunger pains, "Could you?"

As she devoured her ramen, he noticed how much redder her hair seemed since the last time they had met. Underneath the light, he could see a strand of hair that was sticking out from the rest, like a sliver of fire burning in the air.

"What?" She asked with her mouthful, "Don't worry, I'll definitely pay you back."

"It's not that. I just noticed that your hair is red again."

"Oh yeah." She pulled a few strands forward, "The brown has been washing out. You were right, by the way. I like it better this way, even if I'm jobless now…and my bike's broken…and I can't afford to buy Shounen Jump anymore…" As she continued to list things off, she started to seem more and more depressed.

"But yeah, I'll pay you back for this, I promise." She reiterated.

"That's okay, you don't have to." He reassured her. In fact, he felt somewhat guilty that after causing her to lose her job and starve, he had offered her nothing else but than a simple bowl of noodles.

"No. I will. And for the coffee last time too. I hate owing people things." She paused, then abruptly slammed her hands down on the table while standing up.

Caught aback, he panicked slightly. He couldn't see her face since she was looking at the ground, but he was worried whether it was something he had said. She was definitely the kind of person that was hard to keep up with.

"U-um…Uzumaki…chan?"

"Goddamnit! I just remembered!" She sat back down and covered her head in frustration, messing up her hair. Her teal eyes peaked out of the scarlet tangle, "I have to pay my landlady by the end of this week or I'll lose my room. But I'm like, 3,000 yen short…"

"If you need a job, you could apply here." Yoshino mentioned as she approached their table to take away the dishes.

Kushina looked up in excitement, "Really? You guys are hiring?"

"I'm pretty sure we are now. There's a company party being held here tomorrow evening but we're short some employees since some part-timers were fired just last night. Right, boss?"

"Right!" The man called out from the back while cracking an egg over the pan, "Hey, young lady, you have the legal documents right?"

"Yes!"

"Then you can start here tomorrow afternoon! Just one rule: do anything that scars my precious Ayame and you're done!"

"Rumor has it that the boss's daughter found them in a huge orgy on top of the stoves." Yoshino whispered scandalously.

Minato jumped back in his seat; his ears turned dangerously red.

"Oi, one other thing you should know about Namikaze, Takemori: don't talk about anything related to sex, drugs, or swears. He can't handle that kind of stuff." Shikaku called out from the counter, noticing his friend's reaction to Yoshino's secretive gesture.

"T-that's not true!" Minato swung around and argued.

"Hey, thanks!" Kushina looked over to him with a huge grin.

The spark of delight in her blue-green eyes made him lose track of what he was indignant about to begin with. They almost made him forget to smile for a second.

"For what?"

"Well, it looks like I should hang out with you more. Good things always happen when you're around, Umikaze!"

"You're welcome, but um…" He tentatively started.

"Yeah, what's up?" She asked, genuinely oblivious to her mistake.

"It's Namikaze…"

* * *

The apartment complex at the edge of the city center was relatively quiet at five in the morning. Most of its residents were still supposedly asleep in their rooms, except for the three figures in the front courtyard.

"If only all my tenants could be like you, Namikaze-kun. You're such responsible young man, paying your rent a week in advance." The landlady, an elder woman with graying brown hair, sighed.

"It's really nothing, Sarutobi-san. It just happened to be convenient, that's all." The blond dressed in workout sweatpants and a pullover hoodie replied humbly.

"Hey. I pulled an all-nighter just to give this to you early in the morning. I should get some praise too here." Shikaku said grouchily, handing an envelope to the older woman as they accompanied her to her car.

"Yes. I suppose that is quite impressive for you, Nara-kun." She said in an unenthusiastic tone that contradicted her words. "Surprisingly enough, you're not the worst one when it comes to procrastination."

"I'm not?"

"The young woman in room 201 has yet to give me her check." She sighed, "I'd hate to do it, but if she doesn't find me by noon, I'll have to ask her to leave."

"Oh, so there _is _someone living in that room at the end of the hall." Shikaku mused.

"Are you going to go back and sleep?" Minato asked his friend once the woman drove off, noticing the bags underneath his dark eyes.

"I wish." He grumbled, "But I missed a lab that I need complete in order to pass the course. The professor couldn't reach me to reschedule so of course Takemori went ahead and told him that I could do it at six in the goddamned morning."

Minato gave him a sympathetic smile.

"What about you, Namikaze? You don't have a reason to be up this early."

"Oh, I'm always up by around this time. I like to take morning runs." He replied, oblivious to the bewildered disgust on Shikaku's face.

They were about to part ways from the parking lot when a cacophonous slam of a door sent birds on the telephone wires flying into the air.

"SHIT!"

Sprinting down the stairs and out into the courtyard was none other than Uzumaki Kushina, dressed in nothing but an oversized T-shirt that barely covered her boxer shorts. Her unbrushed carpet of hair flew behind her in wild red knots as she cursed at the top of her lungs.

She looked over at the two college students and quickly asked, "Which way did she drive?"

"Uh, that way." Shikaku pointed.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

She shoved a white envelope into her mouth, allowing her hands to unlock her bike from the rack in a frenzy. Kicking the rusty kickstand back without care for the bike's fragile state, she leapt onto the seat, and pushed on the pedal.

"GO YOU PIECE OF SHIT! MOVE BEFORE I THROW YOU OUT LIKE I'LL BE THROWN OUT OF MY APARTMENT!"

She yelled right before crashing to the ground and remembering that the gears were broken.

"Damn. _She's _been our neighbor this whole time?" Shikaku observed.

The first thing that actually came to mind was the question of whether or not she could remember his name correctly, but it was clearly not the time to ask that, or even say 'good morning'. Instead, Minato unlocked his bicycle and walked it over to the girl, who he suspected had already succeeded in waking up half the other residents.

"Um…Uzumaki-chan, do you need a ride?" He gestured, offering her the back seat.

"Yes!"

Before he could straddle the front seat, she snatched the front handles and ran right past him with the bicycle.

"Wait! Uzumaki-chan, I meant—

"I owe you!" She called back as she pedaled vigorously down the streets, almost crashing into a couple and a dog before narrowly swerving aside. Before she disappeared with his bike at the corner of the street, he heard her yell:

"Thanks, Namikaze!"

He continued to look in the direction of the empty intersection, somehow he couldn't stop smiling.

"Hey, Mr. Nice Guy. What you did was chivalrous and all, but you don't have a metro pass, do you?" Shikaku interrupted, looking at the pleased expression on his face.

"No."

"Well then, how do you plan on getting to class? It's an eleven mile walk for pedestrians, you know."

He had forgotten about that. With a sheepish smile on his face, he scratched his head and laughed, "Whoops."

"Wow, Namikaze. It looks like today you're going to be late to class for the first time in your life."

* * *

**As you have probably predicted, all my characters are extremely secondary in the canon. But here's how my mindset works: there has to be some story with the parents otherwise the kids in Naruto we love so much wouldn't even exist XD. I also throw in some OCs eventually; so now that I've thrown that out there, leave now or forever hold your peace.**

**Anyways, as for the new names….**

**Takemori Yoshino: Takemori translates to bamboo forest**

**Hanamichi College: Hanamichi translates to "Flower Path". **

**I'm sorry for the long wait! Admittedly, I had been really busy and had reached a writer's block. But after a few inspirations, this is up and running again!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Plan C Could you play with us?

**Could you play with us?**

Shoes squeaked with pivots and shuffles down the polished wooden floor of the gym. The basketball arched neatly and soundlessly through the net in an orange blur.

"Goddamnit." Chouza, the redheaded player huffed, doubled over in exhaustion, "Guys, I think I'm done. I can't keep up with Namikaze; he's too fast."

"Maybe if you spend the same amount of time working out as you do making bets on my sleeping habits with Inoichi, you wouldn't be struggling so much." Shikaku replied, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a wristband.

"Oh fuck off, Shikaku. _You _guard Namikaze then."

"I'll pass."

"And why is that you goddamned hypocrite?"

"It would spend the valuable and minimal energy resources I have."

"Minimal? What the—you bastard, your new clock went off at six in the morning! I actually had to get up and shut it off because you kept on sleeping!" Chouza growled.

"Don't be bitter," Shikaku responded unsympathetically, "I'll treat you to barbeque after this."

"Right. With the money you borrowed from me."

"Shut it, you two. You sound like old men." Inoichi said, dribbling the ball, "Hey Namikaze, stop being an unmerciful bast—jerk and slow down a bit on us. You're carrying your entire team."

"Huh?" Minato looked back in mid-jog, hardly tired while his teammates and his opponents in the casual 3 v. 3 game were struggling to catch their breath. Noticing this, the blond scratched his head with a guilty smile, "Sorry."

"God, we've been here for two hours and you're hardly sweating." Chouza pointed out while airing out T-shirt that was drenched at the top.

"Good thing we never have to play against you in a real game." Shikaku said as they changed after making a deal with Minato to stop after the next basket.

"I can pay for the court today." Minato offered once they reached the top of the stairs from the locker room to the front reception.

"I'm only going to tell you this once, Namikaze, but don't ever mention paying for guys like Shikaku unless you seriously intend to, because they'll leech off you without shame. I say this from experience." Inoichi advised.

"Oh, so are you going to chip in then, Inoichi-the-wise?" Shikaku asked.

"I left my wallet at home."

"Liar." Chouji grabbed a wallet from Inoichi's back pocket.

"Okay, can you _not _reach for my ass?"

"It's fine. I can pay." Minato smiled and left the three bickering friends and his two other teammates for the front desk with his wallet.

"Two and a half hours. That's 7,000 yen, please." The red-haired receptionist sitting crosslegged on a chair casually said, "Oh, and you have to sign out on the clipboard here."

He looked up in pleasant surprise, "Uzumaki-chan!"

"Oh, Namikaze!" She grinned. "What's up?"

"I'm well, how about you? I thought you worked at Ichiraku Ramen now."

"Oh, I still do. This is one of my other part-time jobs." She replied, taking his money and punching the buttons into the cash register, "I have five"

Minato's blue eyes blinked in astonishment, "Five? Isn't that a lot?"

She shrugged casually, "Well, I don't really go to college or anything. Anyways, what are you doing here?"

"Playing basketball with a few other guys from the team I'm on." He pointed back to the guys behind him, who were still bickering, "The gym at our university is being renovated, so we're practicing here for the winter."

"That's cool. What do you play?"

Before he could respond, a black haired young man stepped in front of him and interrupted, "Excuse me, miss, but I'd like to request that this gym facility be closed off to the public for the exclusive use the Koshougan basketball team."

Kushina glanced at the college student's preppy, cable-knit sweater vest with a college insignia at the breast. She wore a wary look on her face, hardly charmed by his charismatic smile. "Yeah…I need to check with the manager about that, pretty boy."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to inconvenience a lady. I'll save you the trouble." He took all of the bills out of his wallet and flipped them carelessly in front of her, "This should cover it."

Minato's eyes widened at the stack of 10,000 yen notes. But Kushina was unconvinced, and so was Chouza, who overheard the student about their age:

"Hey, you're kidding me, man. What does Koshougan need with a public gym facility?"

"It just so happens that the varnish on the wood flooring is not up Koshougan's standards. So while that is being corrected, the basketball team needs a court to practice on. This facility just happens to be the most convenient for all of the members of our team."

"Which is a perfectly good reason as to why you can't share, because…" Inoichi replied.

"Well, as the prefectural championship title holder and regional finalists, Koshougan just can't afford to have outside…civilians tampering with its practice environment."

"We need a place to practice too." Chouza argued.

"You six play collegiate basketball?"

"Yes." Chouza replied stiffly. He could hear the condescending tone masked behind pleasantry. He turned to Inoichi to ask, "He just judged me for my weight, didn't he?"

Inoichi ignored him and reiterated, "Yeah, we play for Konoha University."

"Ah, one of the smaller schools. That's why I don't recall ever playing you."

"Okay bastard. First of all, we were in the regional tournament. And secondly, Konoha is three times the fucking size of Koshougan." Chouza glared.

"Alright. Alright. It's not a big deal guys," Shikaku sighed in exasperation, "we can just find another gym."

"Are you sure you're in a position to say that, Shikaku? This is the cheapest gym in the city and you're already broke." Inoichi pointed out.

"Oh, I can go out of my way to reimburse you gentlemen for your troubles." The young man offered.

"Awesome. Com'on guys, let's go." Shikaku started walking away.

Chouza grabbed his shirt and yanked his unmotivated friend back, "The fuck? You're just going to take his money and leave?

"If it means not having to waste my energy dealing with bothersome people, yeah."

"Well I'm not backing down." Chouza glared determinedly.

Sensing a fight about to break out (more from Chouza's end), Minato stepped in and put on a diplomatic smile, "Guys, I'm sure we can reach some sort of compromise."

"We'll take your team on." Chouza ignored Minato's attempt to be friendly.

"Huh?" That was not what Minato had expected. Misunderstanding Chouza's belligerent reply for an open challenge to physical violence, he panicked, "W-wait! Akamichi-kun!"

"Five of your guys and five of ours. Here. In exactly one week next Saturday morning. We'll play a full court game."

A smile of amusement flashed across the private college player's face, "Sounds like a plan, then. Oh, you can keep the money as a tip, miss." He mentioned as Kushina was about to hand his bills back, "It was just extra change."

"It was just extra change." Chouza mimicked in a high voice of disgust. He collapsed on to the couch in the lobby in frustration, "Bastard. Him and practically all of those Koshougan snobs. Think they can hand people money and expect them to be their bitches."

"But man, his parents must be loaded. Look at all this cash! How much money do you think is here?" Shikaku looked over at the counter.

"I don't give three fucks." Kushina said, leaving the money untouched at the table as she started playing with the mini basketball hoop behind the counter.

"If you don't want it, I'll take it." Shikaku said.

"I was planning to try origami later with that, but sure, go for it." She simply replied.

"Shikaku!" Chouza watched unbelievingly as his friend crammed the bills into his pocket.

"What? Don't complain, your barbeque will be 100% paid by me now."

"Um, sorry to ruin this for you guys, but the two of us are busy next Saturday." One of the teammates guiltily mentioned.

"You've got to be kidding me. That makes only four of us!" Chouza said, aghast at the prospect of playing with a missing position, "Why didn't you say so beforehand?!"

"Who had the chance to? They didn't stand a chance against your PMSing." Shikaku grumbled.

They sat at the lobby, trying to rack their minds for someone who would be free next day.

"Oh the sweet sound of impending defeat." Shikaku finally broke the silence with his cynical comment.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find someone…" Minato reassured his friends.

He trailed off and looked in the direction of the desk, where Kushina was casually making consecutive shots with a miniature basketball. His blue eyes lit up at an idea. He hesitated for a moment before calling out her name.

"Uzumaki-chan."

"Hm?" She made another basket.

"Have you played basketball before?"

"Yeah. I used to play in high school. Why?"

"Woah woah, hold up Namikaze." Shikaku interposed, "You realize that you're asking a chick to play against _guys _who won the prefectural tournament."

Minato optimistically smiled, "Give her a chance. She says she's played before."

"Did I forget to mention that our opponents are guys again?"

"It's worth a shot, Shikaku. She's actually pretty tall for a girl and look, she shoots better than you do." Inoichi smirked as she made another basket.

"We can head back down to the gym and do a few more drills. Then we can vote on it." Minato suggested hopefully.

"So, what do you guys think?" Kushina asked excitedly, after dribbling past Chouza and making a lay up.

"Jesus, you're almost as fast as Namikaze." Chouza puffed, trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah. You and Namikaze work really well together." Inoichi observed.

Minato looked over at Shikaku, who finally admitted, "She kind of sucks at turnaround jumps, but she'd make a good pitch in for small forward."

"So?" The girl asked with her red hair tied back in a long ponytail.

Minato retrieved the ball and passed it to her with a smile.

"Could you play with us next Saturday?"

* * *

When Kushina walked into the gym, she expected her yawn to have a solitary, loud echo, the kind of echo that rung in an empty room. Instead, her eyes were blinded by the artificial lighting above; she covered her ears from the overlapping noise of a bouncing ball. After adjusting, she opened her eyes in a squint just in time to watch Minato pivot and dash down the court in a dribble. With still some sleep in her eyes, the blond in his hair seemed to trail behind him in color, like a yellow flash of a lightning bolt.

He caught sight of her scarlet ponytail and held the ball in his hands, "Good morning, Uzumaki-chan."

"Morning." She rubbed her eyes, "Jesus. Why the hell are you up this early on a Saturday?"

He smiled as she grabbed a ball from the rack, "To practice. Like you."

"You don't need it." She snorted, "You're insanely good already. Why try even harder?"

"Thanks, Uzumaki-chan. But I'm not that good. Besides," He laughed humbly and shrugged, "I just want to make sure I don't disappoint anyone."

She reached up and then tried touching the ground—it was a good attempt, considering that her flexibility was awful. "If it's anyone that's going to disappoint, it's me if I don't get that turnaround jump. Nara, Yamanaka and Akamichi have given me all these pointers this past week and I still don't really get it."

He wondered if the tone in her voice sounded somewhat gray, but before he could open his mouth she rebounded back up and held up her fists.

"But today is the day! I can just feel it!" Her teal eyes glinted with determination.

She walked onto the court. With her back facing the wall, she turned with her legs awkwardly squatted and robotically threw the ball. It soared over the backboard and hit the brick wall. She did all this muttering to herself.

It made him smile some reason, as he stopped to watch under the guise of drinking his water.

"What?" She noticed his observant blue eyes and demanded aggressively.

Thrown off guard, he almost dropped his water bottle. Luckily, he caught it in a fluster and darted his eyes to the opposite corner of the gym.

"I'm getting there!" She insisted.

"Um. Do you want some help practicing?"

"No. I'm fine on my own." She tried again. This time the ball flew a meter past the right side of the backboard.

"Okay fine. Just tell me what looks wrong."

"Your knees look kind of off." He offered.

"Really? Yamanaka said they should be about 45 degrees."

He walked over and grabbed the ball in her hands, pulling it upwards so that her stance was slightly higher. "Put your feet a bit closer together so that's about shoulder length."

She followed.

"Now push off with your right leg to turn and shoot."

She did. The ball hit the rim this time. She turned back to him after getting the rebound with a grin.

"Hey, it kind of works better!"

"It's because Yamanaka-kun was telling you advice that works for him. But you're a bit different. See," He went behind her and had her defend the ball, "you're a bit shorter so you don't have to crouch as much."

She jumped and turned in the middle of the air to throw the ball again, only to miss by a centimeter. He patiently acted as the opponent as they practiced for the next half hour, trying to figure out why her shots weren't making the hoop despite the fact that her form seemed nearly perfect.

Thrown off balance in the middle of a turn, she jumped too far forward and crashed into his chest. Without second thought, he reached out and got a hold on her left arm before she fell backwards.

"Sorry!" He apologized quickly.

He noticed that the arm he was holding was the one that left the ball last each time she threw the ball.

"What? I'm fine, you can let go you know."

"Uzumaki-chan, are you left-handed?"

"Yeah. Is that wrong, because there's no way in hell I'm fixing that in one day."

"No, it's fine." He let go with a laugh, "It's just that, all this time we've been trying to tell you what to do under the assumption that you were right-handed."

She blinked, "That kind of stuff matters? I thought left-handed people just had to deal with it."

"Try pushing off your left foot instead and see what happens."

He handed her the ball and she started dribbling. When he tried to go on the offensive, she guarded for a few bounces and pushed towards the hoop. She pivoted to her right and leapt.

Against the white light, her scarlet hair radiated a sort of amber glow as her long ponytail whipped across his eyes and then behind her shoulders. The faint scent of citrus shampoo made him realize just how close he was to her. So even if he was notoriously known to have the most durable balance on his team, and even if her arm grazed his shoulder only ever so slightly, he fell back onto the ground anyway.

She slipped on her landing and crashed on top of him.

The ball bounced onto the ground and settled to a slow roll.

That was all he could hear, since his vision blurred slightly. He guessed that somehow, he had hit his head against the hard wood floor.

"Hey Namikaze! Namikaze!"

The voice pulled all the colors and shapes back into place. So the first thing he saw was a strand of red hair. Then his own reflection in a pair of bright teal eyes.

"Namikaze! Did you see that?" She grinned triumphantly, still on top of him "I got it in! A clean shot!"

She felt heavy, but all he could notice was how her blue-green eyes outshone the sweat on her face and the red hairs sticking out of her elastic band. But remembrance of social standards reminded him that he was expected to do say something, do something, rather than just look at her for the rest of the time.

Finally, he awkwardly offered a handshake.

"Congratulations, Uzumaki-chan."

She looked at his hand for a moment, as if considering something, before accepting it with a beam.

"Thanks!"

It was weird. Suddenly he forgot that he had someone sitting on top of him in the whole time.

* * *

"Matching jumpsuits _and _cheerleaders. Niiice." Shikaku whistled underneath his breath at the bench when he noticed the other team walk into the gym accompanied by an audience.

"Wow. It's like they're bishounens right out of an otome game for preteen girls." Inoichi blatantly said, without care for whether the five players on the other bench overheard his analogy.

"Pfft. Like UtaPri gone basketball." Chouza mocked.

Noticing Shikaku, Inoichi, and Kushina's stares, he then quickly added on:

"I have a sister."

"I hope you don't mind." Minato politely approached one of the players, a redhead, as they warmed up, "We had to find someone outside of the team to pitch in."

"Oh, interesting. Who did you guys get?" The young man turned and saw Kushina at the bench.

From the look in her eyes, she seemed to notice him as well.

"_Very _interesting." The Koshougan student grinned to himself before calling out, "Yo! Hime-sama!"

She glared, "Great. I find out today that Bleach is on hiatus and now you show your ugly ass face in my life. My day is perfect."

Minato wondered if he was missing something in their less-than-pleasant salutations. Upon introducing each other at the center of the court, he learned that the redheaded man's name was Uzumaki Kaminari.

"Hey, Uzumaki. Are you two related?" Chouza asked as they got into position, watched Minato and the other team's point guard check the ball.

"No. Uzumaki's a common last name." Kushina replied, "I just know Kaminari from a place I used to work at."

They got off on an even start, with Kushina communicating easily with the rest of her team. From an outside point of view, she could've almost passed for a regular player. With Minato, she was able to hold her own against the opponents, aggressively going for shots and side shoving for opportunities.

That was until the redheaded player from the other team became impatient and jabbed her at her rib cage as she was running down the ball. She stuck her hand out to save herself from the fall, but ended up feeling a sharp pain shoot up her arm instead.

"Fuck!" She cussed and grabbed her wrist.

"Uzumaki-chan!" Minato stopped and knelt down beside her, "Are you okay?"

"I think I did something to my wrist." She flinched in pain as he gingerly reached for her hand.

"Hey, Uzumaki." Chouza jogged up with the other two behind him, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gritted.

"I don't think you should play anymore, Uzumaki-chan." Minato suggested after checking her wrist, "You've sprained your wrist."

"What?! No way!" She shot back angrily, "I'm fine!"

"How unfortunate. But you won't seriously let stay in, right Namikaze-kun?" The redheaded Koshougan player said with an expression of worry plastered over his face, "It wouldn't be right to have a princess play with an injury."

"Oh when are you going to stop spewing shit out of that pretty face of yours?" Nara interrupted with an annoyed look, "You were the one who knocked her over, asshole."

Kaminari smiled innocently, "What do you mean? This is a friendly game, but basketball's a physical game. You should've kept that in mind before you got her—

"Look, just as much as I find women annoying, what pisses me off even more are guys like you who would stoop so far as to foul a girl to save your shitty ass pride."

"Are you implying that my teammate here cheated?" The black haired player from earlier asked.

"You're the one who spends 90 grand a year on your education. You tell me, genius." Inoichi replied.

"Look. I really lament that you guys believe that I would do such a thing to _Kushina-chan_. But what are you going to do now that her left hand is injured?"

"This."

Before Minato could tell what she was going to do, Kushina got up and punched the redhead square in the nose with her right hand.

"You _bitch_!" He covered his nose in pain as the other four looked on in horror.

Minato stared in shock as Inoichi and Chouza tried to keep a straight face.

"She broke my nose!" He looked around expectantly for some kind of outrage from his team.

Shikaku replaced his smile with an unconvincing version of sympathy, "What? I didn't see a thing."

"Who's unfortunate now?" Kushina challenged violently.

The other Koshougan players held Kaminari back before he charged at her.

"Come on, Uzumaki. It's not worth it." One of them said.

Another one whispered into his ear and caused the redhead's eyes to widen as if he had just recalled a bad memory. As if she could read his mind, Kushina flashed a devious smirk.

"We can buy out another place." The black haired player said as they walked off.

"Yeah, I'll tell my parents about this. Then we'll see who's the last one laughing."

"Well, joke's on you. Because then you'll just have to tell them how you got your asses kicked by a girl." Inoichi called out.

Chouza noticed Minato still on the ground, "Hey, Namikaze. It's over. You can get back up. Everything is PG again, you know."

He did know. He had been paying attention to the whole thing; the way she recklessly threw her fist; the way she wholeheartedly grinned without regrets; the way her ponytail swung behind her as she did all that, like some fearless fire.

In the middle of staring in amazement, he had just forgotten to stand.

* * *

**Just so we have the original schools straight…**

**Konoha University: the public university Minato, Inoichi, Shikaku, and Chouza attend**

**Hanamichi College: the women's college Yoshino attends**

**Koshougan College: the prestigious private college introduced this chapter. **

**As for OCs…Uzumaki Kaminari—Kaminari is a Shito deity of thunder that often can be referred to as Raijin. **

**For those of you that like Uta no Prince-sama, my apologies (I guess). I'm not a huge fan of anime adaptations of otome games, but I have a close friend who does and I love to make jabs about them just to annoy her. I find UtaPri particularly hilarious for its ridiculous misuse of percentages (if 1000% wasn't absurd enough, they had to go ahead and make a sequel…which wasn't 1001%, but 2000%.)**

**Anyways, just my ramblings. As always, thanks for reading! I appreciate any and all reviews :)**


	4. Plan D: Can I carry that bowl for you?

**Can I carry that bowl for you?**

"Ow!" Kushina yelped loudly.

Minato kept a firm grip on her left wrist, preventing her from running away. She continued to whine on the couch as he knelt and treated her sprain with an ointment.

"It'll prevent it from swelling." He unyieldingly asserted.

"There's no stopping him, Uzumaki. Once Namikaze gets into his mother mode, he gets more stubborn than anyone else I know." Shikaku said.

"Stop molesting my wrist! It hurts!" Her complaints continued to carry through the lobby of the sports complex, where most of the spectators and players, including Inoichi and Chouza, had already left.

Minato wrapped her wrist, handed her an ice pack, and immediately let go. He was about to defend himself from Kushina's accusation, but a black haired man with gray eyes interrupted them.

"Nice game, Minato."

The blond looked up and saw the young man dressed in a button down sweater with a collared shirt underneath. Accompanying him was an equally well-dressed woman about his age in a deep red turtleneck and a knee-length skirt.

Minato greeted with a smile, "Hi Fugaku. Mikoto-chan."

Observing their wardrobe, Kushina gave them a cautious look. Shikaku noticed this and said to her:

"Don't worry. Uchiha's not one of them. Well, he is a rich little prick who goes to Koshougan, but he's an archer. And he's not as much of a douche."

"I appreciate the compliment, Nara." Fugaku sarcastically thanked.

"I got your back."

"Uzumaki-chan, this is Uchiha Fugaku and Arashi Mikoto-chan. They're my friends from high school." Minato introduced, "Fugaku, Mikoto-chan, this is Uzumaki Kushina-chan."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Uzumaki-san." The woman with straight, jet black hair bowed slightly.

Fugaku stared at the red haired girl for a moment before doing the same, "Nice to meet you."

"Oh, um. Yeah." Kushina unenthusiastically followed their lead, as if discomforted by something, "Same."

"Namikaze-san, you're really quite something on the basketball court." Mikoto complimented as they walked out of the facility in a group.

"It's not a big deal." Minato modestly responded.

"You too, Uzumaki-san." Mikoto turned to her and smiled, "You were on par with all of those guys. Do you play basketball for your school?"

"I'm not in college." Kushina flatly answered.

To save Mikoto from the awkward silence she fell back on, Fugaku said, "Good for you, doing what you did back there to Uzumaki Kaminari, though."

"Fugaku! I'm sure it would've been better if we sorted things out by talking!" Minato insisted.

"He's a notorious jerk at Koshougan. He deserved it, really." Fugaku unsympathetically stated.

"Wow. Look. For once Uchiha and I agree on the same thing." Shikaku said.

Mikoto looked over to Kushina, who was uncharacteristically quiet in the conversation. "Uzumaki-san, I'm really sorry for what happened to your wrist."

Kushina looked up in confusion, "Why? You're not the one who did anything."

"I just hope that you don't have a bad impression of Koshougan. It's really just a few students that are unpleasant. Fugaku-san and I try to avoid them as well. Besides, to tell you the truth," Mikoto covered her lips to hide a tiny laugh, "I was really happy when you hit Uzumaki Kaminari. I've always wondered what it would be like to do that."

"What? You too, Mikoto-chan?" Minato sighed, realizing that he was the sole advocate for peace in his group of friends.

A small grin appeared on Kushina's face at the idea of a proper woman like Mikoto punching a man in the nose.

"You should do it sometime. It's therapeutic." The redheaded girl suggested.

"Please don't teach her, Uzumaki." Shikaku pleaded with a sigh, "I already have my fair share of scary women in my life. Between you and Takemori…I might cry if Arashi goes to the dark side too."

"What was that about me and the dark side?"

Shikaku realized that they were in front of the Ichiraku Ramen restaurant. Through the reflection of the glass window, he could see a brown haired woman with her hands on her hips, dark brown eyes glaring directly at him.

"Nothing."

Yoshino raised an eyebrow in suspicion as she walked towards the entrance, "Is that so, or did I just _scare _you off?"

In the middle of her conversation with Mikoto, Kushina noticed her coworker and gave a wave, "Yo, Takemori! What's up?"

"Hi Uzumaki-kun. You're on shift with me today, right?"

Minato noticed how the two seemed to be on friendly terms and smiled.

Yoshino noticed the bandaging and curiously asked, "What happened to your wrist?"

"It's nothing," Kushina dismissed casually, "Anyways, see you guys."

"Wait, you're working today?" Minato asked her.

Kushina blinked, "Yeah. I work here on Saturdays."

"Shouldn't you rest for today?"

"Saturdays are the best days for tips. The only way I'm missing that is if I somehow get murdered or if there's a One Piece marathon on TV."

"But-

"I'm fine Namikaze. Look, I'll even use the ice you gave me."

She popped one of the cubes into her mouth, clueless about her mistake.

"Um, Uzumaki-chan, that ice is for putting on your…"

Minato trailed off, since it was clear that she was already too far to hear him. He sighed and let her go, but not without giving her a glance of concern.

* * *

She blew on the stray strand of hair in front of her forehead in irritation and took a deep breath; her last ditch attempt to keep her frustration in check.

"…no egg yolks—unless the egg is from a Hokkaido chicken-and no soup…and some shredded goat cheese."

She felt a vein pulse in her temple, along with the strong temptation to chuck her notepad and pen into the customer's face; the request was so specific that it had taken up three pages. What kind of person asked for ramen without soup anyway? If it was noodles she wanted then she should've just gone to the soba or udon shop across the street.

"I'm terribly sorry. We don't have goat cheese in our kitchen." Forcing the smile made her face twitch. But she did it anyway and apologized, as if Japanese ramen restaurants were expected to have cheese in the first place.

"Goat cheese." The oversized woman corrected, and then added on, "You see, I'm about to have a surgery and I'm supposed to lose weight for it. So this is my last indulgence before I start dieting."

Kushina wondered when this surgery was, because this same woman had told her the same thing two days ago, and the day before that, and the day before that as well. But she refrained from suggesting that she spend her money on liposuction instead of nonexistent goat cheese ramen. In a strained falsetto, she said:

"Oh, good for you!"

Squeezing past obese old men with their chairs pushed out too far, feeding chairs for babies who were spilling their soup at two accidents per minute, and generally annoying people who kept sticking their hand out at her (two unintentionally groping her) for orders, she made her way to the order counter. She slapped her pages of orders in front of Yoshino, although the sound of the impact was engulfed by rowdy drunks and the deaf elderly who felt the need to scream louder and louder at one another. The brown haired girl tilted her head and flipped the paper in all different directions.

"Uzumaki-kun, no matter how you look at it, this is hardly legible." Yoshino squinted.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm trying." Kushina rolled her left wrist carefully.

Catching her coworker's eye twitch in pain, Yoshino asked, "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Kushina looked up from her hand, "Oh, yeah! What are you talking about? I'm fine."

"Waitress! I've been waiting for my wine for the past half hour!"

Kushina looked back and flashed him a quick middle finger for her private satisfaction before calling out, "Sorry sir! I'll get it right away!"

"Wine?" Yoshino raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Pee no liar from France."

"Pinot noir?" Yoshino laughed.

"Yeah. That."

"We don't sell anything but sake."

"I know. I'll just mix some sake and water, smash a few grapes into it, and dye it with soy sauce. They're too drunk to notice."

"My wine!"

"Coming!" Kushina hollered back and then muttered before performing a balancing act with the full trays as she walked back into the fray, "Jackass."

Yoshino stifled a laugh at the tomboy's attitude and looked back down one of her orders, incredulous.

"Wait, Uzumaki-kun! Does this say goat cheese?!"

"Took ya long enough!" The man said as she set the drink down.

"Sorry." She replied.

Actually, the only thing she was sorry about was not thinking of putting rat poison into the concoction as well. She turned away and addressed the long line of customers still waiting for tables.

"Hey Uzumaki." Shikaku greeted.

"Yo!" She grinned and seated them at a cleaned table.

"Has it been this busy the whole day?" Fugaku looked around, somewhat unused to the boisterous atmosphere.

"Yeah. It's like this every fucking weekend." She took out her notepad.

"He wouldn't know. It's Uchiha's first time here. He typically only goes to the classy joints." Shikaku said.

"It's not a matter of class." Fugaku closed his eyes in irritation, "I just don't eat out often."

"Just warning you: they don't offer silver chopsticks here."

"The only reason why I'm putting up with you is because Minato never told me that you were coming when he invited me."

She looked over to the blond at the inside of the booth. He gave her a smile, which she chose not to return.

"Weren't you just here last evening?" She asked.

"Um…yeah. I was just um…out of groceries today." He replied.

She squinted in suspicion and could've sworn his eyes were avoiding hers. Finally he asked:

"Um. Your wrist…are you feeling better?"

She clicked her pen after taking their orders and tucked it behind her ear in annoyance, "I'm fucking _fine_. In fact, Namikaze. I feel perfect today. So if you're coming here just to check up on me everyday like some nurse coming with a pee stick, you can stop."

"She does look okay." Shikaku agreed after she left to serve other tables balancing as many as four bowls at once in her hands.

Minato didn't say anything, but he noticed details that his two other friends could not, and that was that her teal eyes twitched just the slightest bit whenever she wrote quickly to take down orders; that the bowls she carried rattled in tiny micrometers from the trembling of her wrist; that her grins seemed stiffer, as if behind it was a well-hidden grimace.

"Here you go: one seafood ramen, one miso ramen with naruto, one Tokyo-style ramen."

"Takemori, I thought you usually worked behind the counter." Shikaku said as Yoshino placed their bowls on the table.

"I can be a waitress when it's busy, Nara—hey, why does Namikaze-kun look kind of depressed?"

"Uzumaki snapped at him." Shikaku replied and then whispered indiscreetly, "She even _swore _at him too."

Yoshino laughed and then sympathetically said to the blond, "Don't worry about it, Namikaze-kun. Uzumaki-kun has had a rough day today. She's broken about four bowls today—

Then she noticed the red haired girl's hand wobble right and looked away just as the sound of a crash punctured the noisy atmosphere.

"Make that five." Yoshino corrected.

"Uzumaki-kun! Was that another bowl I heard?" A man's voice called from over the sizzling in the kitchen.

"Sorry Teuchi! Take it off my paycheck!"

Yoshino sighed, "She had gotten better this past week, but for some reason, she's been dropping things back and forth since yesterday. I think it really might be her wrist that's bothering her."

Minato looked over to Kushina, who was preoccupied with picking up the pieces of the bowl she had dropped off the ground.

"Would it be okay with your boss if I helped her?" He asked.

"With her job? Sure, I don't think he would mind at all. But," She shrugged, "you'd have to get Uzumaki-kun to agree first."

A few moments after the brown haired employee left to handle organizing the orders at the front, a baby at a family table nearby dropped his sippy cup and began throwing a tantrum, sending noodles flying into the air.

"Waitress! Waitress!" The mother's voice was overpowered by the impatient yells of other customers.

He looked around. All the other waitresses seemed to have their hands literally full, whether it was with a dish rag to clean tables that were left inconsiderately messy or with piling dishes. To his right, Yoshino was trying to handle a grouchy old woman and to his left, Kushina was still struggling to keep up with an order. Sympathetic towards the struggling woman and the overwhelmed waitresses, he went over to the mother.

"Ma'am, do you need help?" He graciously offered.

"Oh, but you don't work here do you…" She tried calming her child down in between sentences and saw him kneel to clean the mess, "Thank you so much—

"Oi, you've got to be kidding me. You're going to do my job now?"

He looked up and saw Kushina's piercing teal eyes glaring down at him; her red hair seeming more fiery than usual as she had her arms crossed. He laughed nervously and tried to explain:

"You looked like you were really busy—

"Fuck that! I'm not some 90 year old woman that needs help crossing the fucking road, alright?! How weak do you think I am?!" She yelled, "For the last time: I don't need your goddamned help!"

He backed off as she shoved him aside and started to pick the noodles up herself. Before she could finish, an irascible woman waved her hand impatiently;

"Waitress! The egg in my ramen is too runny!"

Kushina left some of the ramen and the child's cup on the ground, in a rush to address the other woman's complaints. Back in his seat, Minato stared at the remains of the mess, struggling with his urge to help her by finishing the cleaning job. He bit his thumb and tried his best to avert his eyes from her, since he decided that would be the best way from worrying. But as she walked over with one oversized bowl filled to the brim with broth, made even heavier by piled toppings, in each hand, he realized that the cup she had left on the ground was in her path. He got up to warn her, but it was too late: she tripped over upon stepping on it and the bowls flipped in the air.

He managed to grab the bowl that threatened to hit her head, but the other shattered on the floor next to her. So the red haired waitress found herself on the ground with beef ramen dripping down her head and a bloody cut in her finger from a shard of ceramic.

"Uzumaki-chan! A-are you alright?!" He stammered in concern and offered her a hand.

She clenched her teeth; just the thought of people staring at her, pitying her for being so weak—it frustrated her so much.

"I'm fine." She said tonelessly, ignoring his hand as she swiped off the chucks of meat in her hair, "I'm going to wash myself off."

Yoshino gave Minato an apologetic look before rushing off to the employees' locker rooms in the back. There, she found that Kushina had already doused off the food in hair. Her loosened, damp hair dripped as she stood in front of the sink, glaring at the running faucet water and then the bright red cut on her finger.

"Alright Kushina…you've got this." The tomboy muttered to herself under the presumption that she was alone, "One. Two. Three!"

She stuck her finger into the water and shamelessly yelped:

"OW! MOTHERFUCKING WATER! DAMN THAT HURTS!"

Yoshino sighed and approached her, "Uzumaki-kun. I have the first-aid kit right here."

Kushina sulked on the bench while her coworker patted her finger using a cotton ball soaked with anesthetic.

"Ow!" She complained.

"Unlike Namikaze-kun, I know nothing about medicine, so this is the best you're going to get from me." Yoshino strictly said, wrapping the cut with a band aid.

"Hey. Do you think old man Teuchi will let me keep my whole paycheck if I superglue all the bowls together?" The redhead asked in a forlorn tone.

Yoshino candidly replied, "Uzumaki-kun, you've broken a total of five bowls, two plates, and six glasses these past two days. That requires a lot of glue."

"I was doing fine." Kushina said sullenly, her face in a stubborn pout, "It was Namikaze's fault in the first place. He ticked me off and then I wasn't paying attention."

"He only tried to help."

"Well I didn't need it! I hate it when people think I can't handle anything." She insisted, "I'm not useless."

"No, you're not. But there comes a point when we're all stronger when we have people helping us."

Kushina wordlessly listened.

"I don't think Namikaze-kun tried to help because he thought you needed it. It think it was because he wanted to himself." Yoshino looked Kushina in the eye, "I mean, he's just that kind of guy. Besides, that's what friends do. It doesn't matter whether you need it or not, they're just always willing to help."

When they left the backroom and re-entered the dining area, Kushina found Minato wiping condiments off the ground. Caught in the act, the blond looked up and nervously laughed.

"Ah ha ha…I can explain—

She tossed a waiter's apron on his head. Averting her eyes away from him, embarrassed from this new concept of directly asking for help, she said:

"You can serve. I'll take orders."

"Really?!"

She snuck a look back down and saw his bright expression. With his head peeking out of the black cloth and those sky blue eyes of his, he reminded her of some sort puppy. It kind of annoyed her in a way. But at the same time, it made her happy too.

"Yeah. You're my friend, aren't you?" She muttered.

He smiled, "Can I carry that bowl in your hands for you?"

They spent the remainder of the night working as a team, and she found out just how impressive her new friend could be when it came to defusing peoples' dissatisfaction or managing generally unpleasant personalities. While collecting dirty dishes, he managed maintain a courteous demeanor that got people smiling instead of tapping their feet.

"I don't know how you do it." She grumbled as they passed by each other.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"You actually seem happy talking to some of these jerks."

"You just have to try. They're actually all very nice people—

"Waiter! The chopsticks here look dirty!"

"…some more than others." He smiled helplessly and walked off.

They continued to exchange snippets of conversation in between writing down orders and carrying food. Kushina snorted:

"I just play pranks on people. That's what keeps me through the day."

Minato laughed until he realized that she wasn't kidding. Astonished, he exclaimed, "You can't be serious—

Kushina proudly grinned, "Just the rude ones. Like yesterday, this twiggy high school bitch asked for a vegetarian option and I gave her one with beef broth."

"I think you could actually get sued for that—

"And then I just smashed some grapes with sake and shit and called it wine for those wasted assholes over there—

Just as Minato flinched at her profane language an earsplitting crack sent a ripple of silence throughout the restaurant. Children stopped whining and shut their mouths; conversations paused; even the cooks peeked out of the kitchen room to see what was going on. All eyes were on the booth of drunk men, specifically the one who yelled at Kushina.

"OI YOU DUMB BITCH! THIS AIN'T WINE!"

Kushina stared at the bottle that was halved clean in two from the impact of the man slamming it against the wall.

"HEY YOU! COM'ERE!"

Kushina walked slowly over as the man said quieter in slow, slurred speech.

"Doz thez look like wiiine to you?" He threatened.

The dark liquid dripped from the pieces. Minato had to admit, with the mush and chunks in the substance, it was pretty hard to call it anything close to a drinkable beverage.

She learned that lies were most convincing when told looking directly at the person's eyes, but found it hard not to stare at the zoo of vicious animals tattooed down the man's entire arm, which she guessed was 99% muscle and 1% bone. Typically, with any other person, she would've easily picked a fight and asked them to bring it outside. But she guessed that this man—if he could be called a man—would have no hesitation to snap her in half like a toothpick, especially if he was intoxicated.

"P-pft. Yeah. Of course. What else could it be?" She hoped that her smile wasn't faltering like her voice was.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" He slammed his fist onto the table. Kushina immediately flinched.

Minato rushed in. With a pleasant smile on his face, he asked, "Is anything the matter, sir?"

"Yea, are you guysss tryin' to tell me…that thez shit…iz fuggin pinot nooiir?"

"Um…Yes. It is, sir. Only our best." He nervously smiled, trying to hold back his typical fidgeting that stemmed from guilt.

"I been to mudderfuckin _Paris_ before, man! You dink you cun fool me wid dis _horzshit_?!"

"Well, sir. Um…this wine, this wine is from, um…Alaska!" Once he thought of this, he started speaking faster, "Yes, Alaska. It is quite unique. They uh, juice the grapes right before serving, which is why you can see some pulp in your wine…"

"You sure about thiz?" The man eyed him dubiously with his beady eyes behind a beefy face.

"Um, yes! Yes, of course! We uh, strive for the unique here at Ichiraku Ramen!"

"Really…" The man drawled before breaking into a boisterous, bellowing laugh, "Well this iz fuggin' _great _man! Why dinnent you say so earlia?"

Minato nervously laughed along as he and Kushina backed slowly away from the booth and behind the counter. Once they were several earshots away from the large men, he heaved a large sigh of relief and grabbed the table to prevent his knees from giving in.

"This is why I _never _lie." He breathed out.

"We're lucky they were drunk." Kushina said, looked over at the men, who were now having a bacchanal over the "wine". "Any sober person would've been able to tell that you had no clue what the fuck you were talking about."

"I know, I panicked." Minato sighed as he slid down against the counter and to the tile floor, "I don't even think they can even grow grapes in Alaska."

He looked up and their eyes met. Once he saw the teal in her irises and she saw the sky blue in his, what happened suddenly seemed hilarious. And then all the two of them could do was laugh.

* * *

Minato ran through his mental checklist as he walked to the self-checkout aisle at the grocery market. Due to the fact that he had helped Kushina with her job for the rest of the weekend, he had eaten ramen at the restaurant with his friends (who tried to take his temporary job as an excuse to eat for free there) for dinner five days straight. The unhealthiness of it made him buy extra vegetables to cook with.

"Namikaze!"

He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a figure waving to him from on the other side of the automatic doors. Although it was ten in the evening, he could still make out the strands of red hair gleaming under the dim street lights. After swiping his card through the machine, he walked outside and greeted her.

"Hi Uzumaki-chan. How are you?"

"Fine." She noticed him looking at her wrist, and then twisted it around freely with a grin, "I'm all better. See?"

Convinced, he gave a smile in return. "I'm glad to hear that."

I was just walking back home from work and saw you through the window as I was walking by. I wanted to give you this. Here."

He blinked at the check in her hand.

"It's your pay."

"Uzumaki-chan…I don't really work there. I was just helping you out."

"But you did do some of my work. So it's only fair if I split my paycheck with you." She insisted.

"I-I can't take it." He tried pushing her hand back.

"Why? I'm offering you money, Namikaze! Just take the goddamned money and buy yourself something nice!" She demanded in frustration.

"It…just doesn't feel right to me." He smiled apologetically, "And I don't really have anything I particularly want right now…"

She sighed. By now, she had figured out that while Minato was generous, he was stubbornly so to an irritating extent.

"So how am I supposed to pay you back for five evenings you've helped me?"

"You don't have to."

"Yeah. But I want to. Otherwise I'll always feel like I owe you something." She stubbornly responded. They walked silently down the sidewalk together, before impatience took over and she ordered, "Find something you need help with!"

He chuckled sheepishly and thought about it for a while, pressured by her urgent glances.

"Um…uh…"

"Oh come on!" She started suggesting things of the top of her head, "I could…bike you to your classes! Oh wait, my bike is broken, that won't work…Well, I could bike you using your bike! But that might be kind of weird…"

He laughed at her tossing and turning of ideas.

"Well if you're not going to come up with anything then I might seriously do it!"

"Okay, okay. Um…how about you carry my grocery bags for me?" He offered, handing out the plastic bags slung in his hands.

She looked at him dubiously, "That's _it_? Five days of dealing with every single type of asshole in the world and all you want in return is someone to hold your _groceries _for you?"

He looked away, "Well…I am really tired from all that work at the restaurant. And all these vegetables are pretty heavy…"

She snatched the bags from him, "Fine. Now we're even."

He smiled and then it was her turn to look away in embarrassment. But after a while of watching her carry the bags and walking empty handed, the feeling of guilt started to sink in and he said:

"Uzumaki-chan, I change my mind…watching you carry my stuff for me is feels too wrong after all. Can I have the bags back?"

"No fucking way."

* * *

**(シ_ _)シ **

**Please find it in your ever so generous hearts to forgive me. I got caught up with college dorm shopping and decor projects...I'm sorry! (╯︵╰,) **

**Uploads will probably be less frequent from now on as I transition into college. **

**But I hope you guys will still follow through with me on this fic! Please review :) **


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